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Websleuths News

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MO - Paul Dart, 48, shot to death on Meramec River float trip, 20 July 2013

STEELVILLE, Mo. — A float trip on a river in eastern Missouri turned deadly when a property owner became angry after seeing a man urinating on a gravel bar, authorities said Monday.

James Crocker, 59, of Steelville, is charged with second-degree murder. He is jailed on a $650,000 cash-only bond.

Crocker, a property owner along the river, is accused in court records of confronting a group of people on their float trip Saturday and shooting Paul Dart Jr., a traveling companion of the man who was urinating, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Dart, 48, of Robertsville, was shot in the head........

"The further we (as the human race) grow away from the natural world, the quieter the natural world becomes and the more pathological we become as a culture."........Bernie Krause

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation......which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.......George Washington

It's never really just about the pee or the dog dirt or the kids running on the lawn.

The guy with the gun didn't have the alcohol.

Not excusing him shooting a man in the head, but he did fire warning shots and some of those yo-yo's kept it up and admittedly the property owner said he shot the closest one. Ummm, bad choice all around. Also, they had to sign an agreement with the float people they would leave immediately if any home owners told them to leave and not to litter.

Alcohol and water sports not a good combo either.

Now a man is dead and is not coming back and a guy is locked up because he was so miffed for a long time about people messing up his property. IF that was even his property per the last part of the article.

The below link is the comments from the article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A prosecutor from Carter County weighs in with his thoughts on this case as has been presented in the MSM. It's of his opinion, this accused shooter may be able to get off of these charges, even at trial. I don't know about these things from a deep legal stand point as I'm not trained in that field. But his comments seem like he definitely knows what he's talking about.

I'm not taking either side on this. I just don't know what really happened that day. But the comment by the prosecuting attorney in Carter County is definitely worth the read.

Filly,
Sorry, did not intend to suggest yesterday that the guy w. gun also had the alcohol, at least not necessarily.
IMO the article shows several people there used poor judgment.

If I were in that river frontage prop owner's shoes, I'd err on the side of caution and
deal w intruding floaters as if they were 'under the influence.'
FME, on the Current River manyfloat trips are pub crawls in canoes.

BTW, a comment (I'm not vouching for it) to stltoday.com story today
said the prop owner-shooter tested positive for alcohol and methamphetimine.

After just two hours of deliberation, the panel of ten men and two women found Crocker, 59, guilty of second-degree murder. A judge subsequently handed him a 25-year-sentence...

After a land surveyor testified Wednesday that Crocker’s property boundary was 381 feet from the crime scene, more than the length of a football field, there was more focus on self-defense...

Seay said it was the unarmed floaters in swimsuits who had to defend themselves. He said Crocker had set the hostile tone on the gravel bar and reverted to previous military training. “He was on a mission that day... to clear the riverbank of people peeing on the rocks, rocks he doesn’t own,” Seay told the jury.